The use of payment cards, such as credit cards, debit cards, and pre-paid cards, has become ubiquitous. Most payment card accounts have one or more associated physical cards; however, the use of non-traditional payment devices, such as appropriately-configured “smart” cellular telephones, is increasing. In some instances, a card or non-traditional payment device is presented at a brick-and-mortar location. In card-not-present transactions, the card or non-traditional payment device is not physically present at the merchant. One example of a card-not-present transaction is Internet shopping. Another example is card-not-present recurring payments, wherein a card holder provides a merchant with the payment card account number and related information (e.g., expiration date) and the merchant uses this information to initiate recurring (e.g., monthly) transactions.
The process of electronic bill presentment and payment has also been popular for quite some time. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,699,528 to Hogan (expressly incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for all purposes) discloses a system and method for bill delivery and payment over a communications network. In the bill delivery and payment system, users are able to access a server computer on a communications network to obtain bill information and pay bills.